Cardinal Farrell: Church needs God to help build bridges

By Sarah Mac Donald |
Catholic News Service

8/22/18

Cardinal Kevin Farrell (left), head of the Vatican's Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, chats with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin during the opening ceremony of the World Meeting of Families in Dublin Aug. 21. CNS photo/courtesy John McElroy, World Meeting of Families

DUBLIN — Cardinal Kevin Farrell, head of the Vatican's Dicastery
for Laity, the Family and Life, said the church needs God to help it build
bridges, to communicate and to help it understand that "we need to speak
to each other and accept each other as children of God."

Speaking to media Aug. 22, the first full day of the World
Meeting of Families, the U.S. cardinal said that was the message international
gathering was hoping to achieve.

In a wide-ranging news conference that touched on clerical sex
abuse, the role of women in the church and LGBT issues, the cardinal said the
fundamental message of the Gospel was the same for all of God's creation.

"It is extremely important that all Catholics understand
that we are all created in the likeness and image of God," he said.

The Dublin-born prelate was asked about building bridges with
Catholic women like Mary McAleese, former president of Ireland, who has said
she will stay away from the pastoral congress at the Royal Dublin Society
because of its failure to be more inclusive of LGBT families and because of the
church's treatment of women.

The cardinal said he was "always open to respectful dialogue
with everybody."

"We have to learn how to deal with each other, and the most
important aspect of dialogue and building bridges is to listen to people. We
don't all have to agree with each other every time; we don't all see the world
and the future of the world or the changing culture of the world in the same
way," he said.

"I have always in my life tried to listen and to enter into
communication and dialogue with all groups of people," he said.

The 70-year-old also said he was not snubbing a women's
leadership symposium organized by the World Meeting of Families. He explained
that he could not attend the "Voices of Impact" symposium Aug. 25
because it clashes with his meeting with Pope Francis as he arrives in Ireland
for two days.

"I am the person who is in charge of the world gathering of
families and, obviously, I am the one inviting the pope to come to this
event," Cardinal Farrell said.

In March, McAleese addressed the conference "Why Women
Matter," organized by the Voices of Faith group. It was forced to relocate
to a venue outside the Vatican following Cardinal Farrell's protest over
McAleese and two other speakers. In her address, McAleese accused the church of
being a "global carrier of the virus of misogyny." She recently
revealed that she had lodged a formal complaint with Pope Francis over Cardinal
Farrell's treatment of her.

Speaking at the same Dublin news conference as Cardinal Farrell,
Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, president of the World Meeting of Families,
described the number of people sexually abused as children by Catholic clergy
and abused in church-run institutions in Ireland as "immense."

He said the number was so large because it included victims of
industrial schools, the Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes and children
abused by priests in parishes.

He underlined that victims who have come forward are only a
fraction of the real number abused and that there "are many people who are
still holding in their hearts the sadness of abuse."

Archbishop Martin also highlighted his concern over the "very
low" number of abusers convicted in the Irish courts for their crimes.

"There may be ways in which the judicial system could make
it easier for people who come forward," he suggested.

"People are asking questions and rightly so. I said myself
on Sunday that we have to ensure that the factors which contribute to and
protect abusers are addressed and they are addressed definitely and
definitively everywhere."

"I believe that the truth will make you free even if the
truth is unpleasant," he added.

He said in Ireland, the church had made "extraordinary
progress" with mandatory reporting obligations.

Teresa Kettelkamp, a retired member of the Illinois State Police
and a current member of the Vatican's Pontifical Commission for the Protection
of Minors, told journalists, "All of us in leadership and all Catholics
feel deep disappointment at what our church leaders have done and what they
have failed to do."

She said a key issue was "what did the church know, when it
did know, what did it not do and what did it do. Those are the things you need
to know to make a solid judgment."

Some 37,000 people from 116 countries are attending events at the
world meeting's pastoral congress Aug. 22-24, ahead of Pope Francis' arrival
for the Festival of Families.